"The Food Network could come up to my bedroom!" says Betty Giandelone. "I've got a whole operation up there!"

Giandelone, who had 18 inches of water in her Kenner condo, is cooking upstairs in the large master bedroom. She is one of uncounted hundreds or maybe even thousands of people in the New Orleans area cooking in improvised kitchens. While they live in the undamaged upstairs of their gutted homes, they eat on paper plates, wait for the real kitchen downstairs to be re-installed, and dream of the day they will have a dishwasher again.

"You've just got to do what you have to do, " Giandelone says. "It's one of those things. You can't go out to eat all the time."

Giandelone, who is single, was able to salvage some dishes from her upper cabinets, but everything else is new after a shopping spree for "every minor appliance known to man, " she says. She has a dorm-size fridge, microwave, coffee pot, George Foreman grill, toaster oven, Crock-Pot, two hot plates and an electric skillet.

Her dining set is a card table covered with a new tablecloth, where she places fresh flowers every week. Most of the time, she washes dishes in the basin in her bathroom.

"I've been known to take my pots in the shower and wash them in the shower, " she says. "It's the only place big enough to wash them. I scrub them down, put them under the shower water, and it gets them clean."

And she is eating well, using her Crock-Pot for soups, stews and beans, making turkey breasts and sharing them with a friend because there is no room for leftovers in her tiny refrigerator. She grills hamburgers, pork chops and steaks, and bakes lots of potatoes in the microwave. Salad is one of her mainstays, but she can buy only one bottle of salad dressing at a time because it takes up too much room in the fridge.

"I'm spending more money because I'm going to the grocery more often, but still it beats going out to eat, " Giandelone said. "I have to go to the grocery every other day, because I don't have space in the refrigerator, and I bring my lunch to work most days and I don't have room to store the vegetables and things."

She also keeps an ice chest to store more fresh food, replenishing the ice every time she shops.

It's not fun, Giandelone said. But she has been doing it since October and has become a reluctant makeshift kitchen expert in the process.

"I could serve Thanksgiving dinner at this point, " Giandelone says, laughing. "I will be so happy when I'm able to have a real kitchen."

Linda Hebbler, who had a foot and a half of water in her Old Metairie home, has been cooking upstairs since Christmas.

"It's getting old, " Hebbler said.

Hebbler shuffled things around in her laundry room to make room for a microwave, an under-counter refrigerator, toaster oven, coffee pot and ice chest. She also uses the top of the washer and dryer for counter space.

As for meals, "I'm not very creative, " Hebbler said. She picks up dinners and rotisserie chickens from supermarkets and restaurants in Metairie, orders pizza, makes sandwiches and buys a lot of frozen food.

"We've also liked some of those pre-cooked microwaveable turkey and gravy things, " Hebbler said. "They're not bad. We found packaged microwaveable rice, and we have that with frozen vegetables and salad. My kids will eat the Chef Boyardee in microwaveable containers. And those microwaveable soups."

When her son at college brought home several friends for Mardi Gras, she stocked up on microwave precooked bacon and biscuits. For her teenagers' snacks, she buys a lot of fruit, granola bars and chips.

Although paper plates and plastic forks are standard, Hebbler said she does enjoy wine in fleur-de-lis goblets that were a gift from a friend. And one of the neighbors who didn't flood has made a point of having a dinner party every couple of weeks for friends who are living upstairs.

"She cooks and serves it on real plates and silverware, " Hebbler said. "We go to their house and that's been good, a nice treat and a nice thing to do.

"You don't realize how much you appreciate a nice home-cooked meal."

Her friend Mary Nuttli has three children and a 14-year-old nephew living at her Old Metairie home. She is in the home-cooking transitional stage, gradually getting more appliances connected in the real downstairs kitchen, where a temporary sink has been installed.

"First we had a dorm refrigerator we worked out of, and we used my mother's house about a mile and a half away" for meals, she said.

She would go to her mother's house and cook in the afternoons, then pick up her kids, then they would go back and eat at her mom's house, making for some long evenings, she said. The system was not great for teens who have a lot of homework.

Nuttli said the family has a table in the kitchen, where they eat, plus a pingpong table in the den, where they eat if they have guests.

"We got the refrigerator connected, and that was a big thrill, " Nuttli said. "The first day I got my refrigerator, I ran to Sam's, and the kids thought I lost my mind."

"It's just a refrigerator!" she said they told her.

"Yeah, but I can have a large thing of Gatorade!" was her response.

"It's funny, you learn to appreciate everything."

. . . . . . .

Food editor Judy Walker can be reached at (504) 826-3485 or jwalker@timespicayune.com.

Lessons from upstairs
Confessions of a second-floor cooker
Thursday, March 09, 2006
By Judy Walker
Food editor
For six weeks, I cooked in our upstairs laundry room. It was a cozy experience, and after a two-month evacuation to Baton Rouge, and another two months with friends on the West Bank, I was happy to be doing anything at all that had to do with cooking in our own Fontainebleau-area home.

And I am here to testify what a great day it was when the new stove was hooked up downstairs and we could eat at the new dining table. It will be another great day when we get cabinets, a disposal and -- finally -- a dishwasher.

If you're cooking under impromptu conditions, here are some ideas and recipes, from my files and from those of fellow second-floor cookers Linda Hebbler and Betty Giandelone:

-- Buy chicken tenders to top chicken Caesar salads.

-- Make salads and toss them in gallon-size zip-top bags.

-- Pork roasts, meat loaf, whole chickens, roasts of any other kind and turkey breasts can all be cooked in bigger slow cookers.

-- If you lack storage space for leftovers, find somebody else nearby who would appreciate meals and share the cooking duties, or who would appreciate your largesse.

-- For Betty Giandelone's 10-minute shrimp salad, buy a bag of mixed salad greens and a bag of frozen shrimp. Saute shrimp in an electric skillet sprayed with Pam, seasoning the shrimp with Zatarain's Creole seasoning mix. Serve the shrimp over the greens with a little oil and vinegar.

-- Open-faced sandwiches and mini pizzas can be made in the toaster oven out of any kind of bread base: half an English muffin, half a bagel, pita bread. Layer on meat and cheese. (Of course you are buying pre-shredded cheese.)

-- Keep or start at least one custom, even if it means washing a dish by hand. For me, it's drinking coffee from my favorite mug every morning. Hebbler has special wine glasses. If real forks lift your spirits, use them.

-- Invest some time in supermarkets and grocery stores looking for convenience products with which you may be unfamiliar.

-- Roasted peppers in a jar can be used on sandwiches, in salads, or added to many other kinds of frozen or fresh vegetables.

-- Refrigerate leftovers in zip-top sandwich bags rather than containers to save space.

-- To get more use out of a toaster oven, search for baking pans small enough to fit inside. Disposable aluminum pans in small casserole sizes are great; some will hold plenty for a main dish for two or three people.

. . . . . . .

In her new Crock-Pot, Betty Giandelone enjoys this recipe she found in Taste of Home's "Slow Cooker Classics." It's easy and delicious, and makes leftovers to share and for sandwiches the next day. "I usually serve over rice or hot noodles," she says.

Place the turkey, skin side up, in a slow cooker. Brush with butter. Sprinkle with parsley, tarragon, salt and pepper. Top with mushrooms. Pour broth over all.

Cover and cook on low for 7 to 8 hours. Remove turkey and keep warm. Skim fat from cooking juices. In a saucepan, combine cornstarch and water until smooth. Gradually add cooking juices. Bring to a boil; cook and stir for 2 minutes or until thickened. Serve with the turkey.

Toaster-oven

catfish fillets

Makes 4 servings

20 golden round crackers, crushed

ｽ cup grated parmesan or cheddar cheese

1/3 cup fresh parsley sprigs, minced

ｼ cup melted butter or margarine

4 catfish fillets

Mix first three ingredients in a bowl. Brush butter on fillets; coat each fillet with the cracker mixture. Place on foil-lined baking tray. Bake at 400 degrees for 15 to 20 minutes, or until fish flakes easily with a fork.

Herbed toaster-oven

fried chicken

Makes 2 servings

This recipe from "The Gourmet Toaster Oven" by Lynn Alley can be made with boneless, skinless chicken breasts, chicken tenders or drummettes. If you don't have buttermilk, combine 1 cup milk and 1 tablespoon lemon juice.

ｽ cup buttermilk

2 cloves garlic, finely minced

1 ｽ teaspoons salt

1 tablespoon oil

ｽ pound boneless, skinless chicken breasts or chicken tenders

1 cup rolled oats

ｽ teaspoon red pepper flakes

ｽ cup grated parmesan cheese

ｼ cup fresh basil leaves or rosemary needles

Olive oil spray

In a shallow dish, mix together the buttermilk, garlic, ｽ teaspoon of the salt, and the oil. Place the chicken pieces in the buttermilk mixture and coat them thoroughly. Marinate the chicken in the buttermilk mixture overnight in the refrigerator.

Preheat the toaster oven to 425 degrees. In a food processor, mix the oats, red pepper flakes, the remaining 1 teaspoon salt, parmesan and basil. Pulse until the oats are partially powdered. Alternatively, mix the ingredients in a bowl with a wooden spoon. Place the oat mixture on a plate.

Shake excess buttermilk off the chicken and dredge to coat each piece.

For easy cleanup, cover the toaster oven baking tray with aluminum foil and lightly spray it with oil. (Check your manufacturer's instructions, however, for any cautions against the use of aluminum foil in your toaster oven.) Place the chicken pieces on the tray so they are not touching one another.

Spray the chicken pieces lightly with oil and bake for about 10 to 15 minutes, depending upon the thickness of the meat, until the crust is golden brown and crispy. Remove the chicken from the toaster oven and serve hot, or refrigerate and serve cold over a salad.